Page 78 of Keeping My Girl

“She couldn’t have known Constantine would show up like that,” I tell my father. Aria isn’t reckless. She’s just very naïve at times…which isn’t totally her fault. My parents sheltered her too much; not that I can really blame them after what happened with Selina, however. Fuck. I could go around in circles a million times trying to make sense of it all, but now isn’t the time for pointing fingers.

“How did he find them?” my father asks the million-dollar question that is on everyone’s mind.

Renato shrugs. “Coincidence?”

I shake my head. “No. More like convenience.”

“Are you sure Dr. Catalano checked her for tracking devices?” Aldo asks me, and I can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind in the past thirty minutes.

“The doctor said she couldn’t find any,” I answer, but now I’m second-guessing Dr. Catalano’s opinion. If she just did a quick search on Selina’s body, she wouldn’t have found anything. I’m sure Constantine wouldn’t have made a tracker easy to find.

“We should have been more thorough, ran a scan on her,” my father says through clenched teeth.

“It would explain how he found her,” Aldo suggests. “That’s the most plausible reason at this point.”

“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath. I think back to the time when Selina told me about Constantine mysteriously finding her and murdering the family that was helping her. No wonder she was always trying to leave here. She knew deep down he would find her again even if she didn’t know the logical reasoning behind it. And I dismissed her fears like a fucking idiot. I made her feel safe when she truly wasn’t at any point. And look what happened. I failed her. I failed them both.

My father clasps a hand over my shoulder. “You didn’t fail anyone,” he says, and I realize I must have spoken the last part of my thoughts out loud. “We’re going to find them. We’re going to bring them back home where they belong,” he tells me.

I give him a nod. Even though his words make me feel minutely better, my stomach is still doing nervous flips. This is Carbone we’re talking about. He took Selina from me once before and was able to disappear for a fucking decade before I was able to find her again. I don’t think I could live without her, knowing she was out there in the world with him, being his plaything to torture and maim.

My hands clench into fists at my sides. No, I can’t think like that. There is no other option at this point but to find them. I won’t let her disappear again. She’s my girl. I won’t stop until I find her. And once I do, Constantine will pay for what he’s done to her with his life.

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